Shoutit is a social marketplace to trade that is an evolution of classified listing, it takes classified concept to new grounds buy offering social aspect such as folowing of people and stuff that maters to you.

On Shoutit users can post a request (shout) be it a good service or help they need and the amount they request and the local community and respond. They call also offer things for sale too.

Shoutit also helps you to build your shopping profile listening (following) to stuff that you like, and then it will try to always show you recommendations based on what you listened to (interested to). You can also build a listeners base which gives your shouts a louder effect and make them reach more people. You can follow a specific tag for example iPhone4 to see what offers are available for iPhone4.

The startup is based in Dubai and it is angle backed as per The National has 5 employees, the site has attracted more than 250,000 page views and 10,000 users. It planes make money by renting businesses a profile whereby they could send out targeted offers based on potential customers’ interests.

Souq.com and the American University in Cairo’s Entrepreneurs Society have teamed up to launch The Hit 2012, the first product innovation competition for the university’s students, which gives participants the opportunity to win LE 50,000 to start up their business and own a commercial channel through an online store on Souq.com.
The concept of The Hit was developed by Souq.com and the Entrepreneurs’ Society, under the support of Sherif Kamel, the Dean of the School of Business. Its aim is to raise student interest in entrepreneurship and innovation, by providing a platform for a practical learning experience. The process shows young Egyptians that with an innovative idea that is properly researched, they can create a product and develop a commercial model to sell it. Souq.com is giving the students real opportunities to go to market with their ideas.
“Our aim is to spread entrepreneurship awareness and foster an entrepreneurial spirit among AUC students and among the Egyptian youth,” said Youssuf El Samma, CEO, Entrepreneurs’ Society. “We chose to partner with Souq.com because through them students with innovative ideas can build business models for products that will get retailed online and will have real buyers in a matter of days. There are many wonderful ideas and concepts among students, who are the entrepreneurs and business leaders of the future. The Hit has encouraged these innovators to bring their ideas to life.”

In collaboration with the Adham Centre for Television and Digital Journalism, each stage of The Hit 2012 was filmed and posted online as webisodes. Today, out of the 16 teams who pitched their ideas to a panel of expert judges, only 10 teams remain in the competition. These 10 have now received LE 1,000 each to build a prototype of their product and present it.
Prior to the prototypes presentations, Omar Sodoudi, general manager for Souq.com in Egypt, spent an entire day mentoring the teams in his office. “It’s been such a journey, watching the ideas of these young entrepreneurs develop and get nurtured to the stage they’ve reached today. The most important thing for us is that all of these ideas end up on the market, not just the winning “Hit”. The teams or the ‘entrepreneurs’ need to start expanding their thinking beyond the idea, but more into setting up a business operation, and how they’re going to make money. We’re offering them an online retail channel, but we also want to encourage them to learn more about all the possibilities of e-commerce.”
The prototype presentations will be filmed on May 3rd and the videos posted on the website for the public to vote on. The voting results will determine the five finalists who will present their fully developed prototypes to the judges. In the final round, the online voters will get to choose the winner of The Hit, which will be announced in an awards ceremony at the American University in Cairo’s New Campus on May 9th.
The Hit 2012 is supported by Souq.com, the Adham Centre for Television and Digital Journalism and KUWADICO.

The competition is divided into three rounds
 
Idea Generation and Executive Summary
100 teams participate in this round by attending the session on Idea Generation and Product Innovation to incubate their initial ideas and learn about the dynamics of ecommerce in Egypt. Participants are then required to send their executive summaries for evaluation
 
Planning Round
In this round participating teams attend the session on Business Case writing where they learn how to plan, write their business cases and present their elevator pitch to the judging panel. 16 Teams are then chosen to take part in the first episode where they pitch their ideas to the judging panel. The panel of judges will choose eight teams and online voters will pick the two other teams to become the top ten.
 
Branding Round
In this round the top ten participants are not yet announced which gives a chance to all 16 teams to brand their businesses and products. The 16 participating teams will attend the session on Branding and Marketing where they learn how to fully develop a marketing campaign and brand their products.  In the second episode top 10 teams are announced and they get a chance to present their full marketing campaigns to the judging panel.
 
Production Round
In this round the top five are not yet announced and therefore all ten participating teams will attend a session on Supply chain and Building a prototype. Participating teams are then funded with 1,000 EGP to build a prototype of their product and present it to the judging panel. Voters will then choose the top four teams to present their fully developed prototypes and the judges bring one of the bottom six back in the competition to present his prototype forming the top five.
 
Final Round
Voters get to choose this year’s Hit through online voting on our website.

E-commerce is hot in the Arab world and now it is taking off after several years. Last year group buying site GoNabit which was founded in UAE was acquired by LivingSocial for a price around $10 million.

Today brings a news of another milestone for e-commerce in the Arab world, MarkaVIP Amman, Jordan based flash shopping site has secured investment of $10 million Series B funding led by European venture firm Prime Ventures. It’s joined buy participation from New York City-based Invus Financial Advisers (IFA), Antwerp-based Hummingbird Ventures, and San Francisco-based Lumia Capital.

According to TechCrunch the cash will be used to expand MarakaVIP operations and marketing and also expand to other parts of the Arab world, specially the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC.)

MarkaVIP, was founded in Jordan in November 2010 by Alkhatib and Amer Abulaila, MarkaVIP’s CTO. Its has 1.5 million registered users and is adding around 5,000 new members per day,

B-Kam.com has just launched; a search engine that brings all Egyptian shopping websites in one place to let shoppers search, compare prices and get the best deals, all from one place.

The site is first price-comparison shopping website in Egypt but not the first in the Arab world as there is Menwayn from Jordan.

On B-kam Shoppers search directly for any product and get results from all the shopping websites instantly. Price comparison of different sellers is so much easier.

Bkam? presents full information about each shopping website in terms of guarantees, delivery, terms of payment, and providing invoices.

However one note About Bkam is that it does not offer a compact view of the different sites that offer the product. You need to click on each one of the vendors site to search for info. It would be much better if it can provide one list showing the item price tag according to the shopping site that sells it.

Statistics show that almost 40% of internet users in the MENA region shop for their stuff online, an excellent opportunity for the online businesses to expand and dominate. With such an excellent potential, Mahmoud Abdel-Fattah, founder of Bkam?, found it necessary to provide a more efficient platform for the online businesses to capture more shoppers. Although the idea is so simple, the development wasn’t all that simple at all. Mahmoud says he owes a lot to eSpace Technologies for acting as a technical advisor throughout the development of B-Kam.com.
Bkam? also released their mobile version in parallel with the full one to allow offline shoppers to search for the best deals on-the-go. In a matter of days, a mobile application will be available to download from both the Apple Store and Android Market.
Sherif Nassar, founder and CEO of Nefsak.com says, “It is a great pleasure to see such a professional service like B-Kam in Egypt. It is not just a price comparison, but a tool for the customers to evaluate the value that they will get from their online shopping experience in just one step. The level of fairness and integrity of the team managing B-Kam, makes us at nefsak.com happy to cooperate with them.”

Mubawab , operating 17 local country websites across the Middle East and North Africa, announced today that it has received $850,000 in funding from Grupo Intercom, One of Spain’s l Web consortium, as well as from international business angels, to further develop classifieds portal for the Arab region. Well-known Web brands emerging from Spain that Grupo Intercom has previously backed include Softonic, eMagister, InfoJobs and BuyVIP.

Mubawab’s aim is to make it easier for people across the Middle East and North Africa to find everyday things online – from real estate to cars, jobs and household items.

The company also announced today that it is now serving 600,000 visitors per month and generating several thousand user-posted classified ads each day – after just 14 months of company operations. Mubawab’s content comes from users, as well as through feeds and partnerships with local businesses and portals.

Despite its rapid growth, Mubawab also faces unique challenges specific to the Middle Eastern market. Shadi el-Hajj, Mubawab CTO, explains: “The Arab online market is still young but with the popularity of social networking and mobile telephony, it’s maturing faster than the underlying economic infrastructure. For example, many countries in the region don’t have reliable street addresses but yet demand for location-based services is emerging. This often creates the need to really think outside the box with the technical solutions we go for.”

Ideavelopers, managers of the Technology Development Fund (“TDF”) and is a subsidiary of EFG-Hermes, recently lead a Series A investment round in Offerna, Egypt’s first group buying site.

Established in March 2011, Offerna provides its customers with deals that feature discounts of 50-90% for various products and services, in return guaranteeing merchants a minimum number of buyers.

Offerna competes with regional group buying sites such as GoNabit which was acquired by living social and Cobone which is part of Jabbar group. Offerna which currently focuses on the Egyptian market is planning a regional expansion.

Offerna is lead by Abdullah Assal, founder and CEO, who returned to Cairo after completing his MBA at Stanford to bring the group-buying model to Egypt.  Offerna’s founding team includes also Sinan Khatib, previously Director of Business Development at BuyWithMe, one of the leading U.S. group buying sites, Yasser Lotfy, previously manager of Etisalat Misr’s Mass Market Revenue and Retention, and Tamer Adel, regional e-commerce expert.

Offerna is TDF’s fourth investment in e-commerce-related companies, recently the VC invested in nefsak. Through its e-commerce investments, Ideavelopers aims to build a network of companies that not only jump start e-commerce in Egypt, but also allow for Ideavelopers’ companies to benefit from portfolio company synergies.

EFG-Hermes was one of the early investors in Maktoob around the year 2000, Maktoob was acquired by Yahoo in 2009.

#Press Release.

Two-thirds of consumers in the Middle East use the internet to research products and services, according to new research published by Econsultancy and Real Opinions.
The Middle East and North Africa Digital Consumer Report shows that 66% of consumers in MENA are using the internet to look for products or items to buy prior to purchase. Of these respondents, 48% use the internet occasionally and 18% use the web regularly to research products.
The report, which is based on a survey of more than 2,000 consumers across different regions in the Middle East, also shows that a third of consumers are currently purchasing products online, and this includes 27% who purchase occasionally and 6% who regularly buy online.
Online consumers are paying for a wide variety of products. Flights are widely bought on the internet in the Middle East, but other things paid for online include hotel reservations, utility bills and books.

Some 39% of respondents currently do not buy online but report they intend to, indicating that consumer interest in e-commerce is set to grow in the region. Some of the barriers to buying online include a lack of trust in payment systems, unsuitable payment options and the lack of online retailers.
Econsultancy’s Research Manager, Aliya Zaidi said: “The good news is that consumers want to purchase online and interest in e-commerce is rapidly growing, spelling out a clear opportunity for companies investing in digital channels. As more companies launch transactional online sites, consumers will become increasingly familiar with internet shopping.”

Zaidi continued: “Consumers also cited poor website design, unreliable delivery and inability to process customer orders, so a focus on best practice can help to remove some of the barriers to buying online.”

The report also examines in detail how consumers use a wide range of online channels, including mobile, social media, search and email.  Consumers are using the internet on their mobiles with 77% of respondents carrying out social networking, and 70% using email on their smartphone. Other activities carried out using smartphones include instant messaging, watching video clips and playing games.
Real Opinions’ CEO, Dan Healy, said, “Investigating the results by country reveals how diversified Internet usage is across the Middle East. An interesting difference is where respondents access the internet, with 34% accessing via internet cafés in Yemen while only 8% use them in Bahrain as 18% use free public Wi-Fi networks.  There clearly is a challenge for some countries to catch-up with others in the region. ”

Key survey findings:
• The lack of trust in payment is cited as a barrier to buying online by 43% of respondents. The second most cited issue is unsuitable payment options, mentioned by over a third (36%) of respondents.
• Social networking is the most popular online activity across the Middle East with 88% of consumers reporting they use the internet for this daily.
• Facebook is overwhelmingly the most popular social media site in the Middle East, with some 98% of respondents stating they use the site.

About this report
The Middle East and North Africa Digital Consumer Report is based on a survey (commissioned by Econsultancy and conducted by Real Opinions) of more than 2,000 consumers across North Africa, the Levant and the GCC. Respondents came from the Real Opinions online panel across the Middle East from a pool of over 100,000 internet users.
The 55-page report looks at internet usage in the MENA region, including the types of products and services purchased by consumers online. The report also examines in detail how consumers use a wide range of online channels, including mobile, social media, search and email.
The survey results are broken down for North Africa, the Levant and the Gulf states. Certain questions are split out further for Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The results show that cultural, demographic and population differences between countries can have far-reaching consequences for marketers in this region.
Report URL
http://econsultancy.com/reports/middle-east-digital-consumer-report

Apple has opened today its online store in UAE, not to be confused with Apple’s App store, Apple online store enables consumers buy Apple’s hardware and software online.

Now residents in UAE can buy online from Apple products such as iPhone, iPad, iMac, iPods and MacBook Pro at prices lower than those in the physical reseller market and deviled to their addresses in 3 days. Apple is also offering free delivery for orders with over than 520 AED.

eMerchantPay, a European-based provider of online payment processing solutions to merchants worldwide, has partnered with cashU, a prepaid card payment gateway in the Arab world, with this partnership eMerchantPay will be able to offer a cash payment method for its clients to better serve customers in geographies where non card payment use is dominant.

With its focus on internet payments in the Middle East and North Africa, cashU will help eMerchantPay meet the needs of merchants across these regions and serve online shoppers in Arabic speaking and surrounding countries with payment solutions.

Founded in 2002, eMerchantPay his an online payment processing market player. eMerchantPay’s payment gateway is registered as Level 1 PCI DSS Compliant which ensures a robust payment card data security processes — including prevention, detection and appropriate reaction to security incidents as well as flexible reporting and customization.

cashU, which was established in 2002 by Maktoob (now Yahoo! Middle East)  and now part of JAbbar, offers prepaid card payment in the Arab world and comepetes with N2V’s One Card.

E-commerce confidence among UAE shoppers is on the rise, according to new research commissioned by Arab group buying site GoNabit, a LivingSocial company. The company partnered with independent research consultancy YouGov Siraj to measure e-commerce sentiment among its registered users in the UAE. The research also shows users prefer to shop with credit cards.

This study comes after a one in March this year, the company now plans to release itquarterly.

“Historically, UAE shoppers have bought confidently from overseas websites, but have not had compelling reasons or opportunities to buy from local or regional websites due to a lack of choice, quality and trust. Our latest research reveals a significant attitudinal shift. The majority of people not only feel confident shopping from local websites, but they are actually buying twice as much online from home-grown sites as they are internationally,” said Dan Stuart, CEO and Co-founder, GoNabit.com.

The research reveals that 75% of respondents feel confident buying online from local websites, an increase of 18% since the March 2011 pilot study. Respondents are more than twice as likely to buy from the region where they are resident (60% buy once a month or more) than from other areas of the world (25% buy once a month or more).

In addition to revealing a significant rise in local e-commerce confidence, the research also shows a 16% increase in credit and debit card usage since the March study, with 69% of those polled now indicating that they prefer this option. Card providers of choice are Visa with 52% of shoppers using this brand and Mastercard at 38%. GoNabit and Visa currently partner on “Visa Days,” which provide special discounts and rewards to GoNabit members who pay with their Visa card. Third-party payment sites, such as PayPal, are less popular with 17% of respondents electing to use this payment method.

“A well documented distrust of credit cards among shoppers in the Middle East is clearly waning – with GoNabit built on the requirement that purchasers on our website transacts via credit card. This isn’t about small numbers either; the research shows that shoppers are prepared to spend up to $1,000 or more online in a single transaction. Consumers are confident shopping with us and making large purchases and they’re confident using their credit card to do it,” said Sohrab Jahanbani, COO and Co-founder, GoNabit.com.

Local commerce continues to serve as a great entry point into e-commerce for consumers new to online transactions. In the last six months, 38% of users polled have made their first online purchase. Given that the research sample is made up of registered GoNabit users, there is a strong likelihood that a GoNabit deal has introduced these people to online shopping.

Overall, consumers are optimistic about shopping online in the future – 45% claim that they will branch out and buy different kinds of products online and 34% predict they will spend more money on future purchases. Almost 40% of respondents said they plan to purchase more from websites based in the Middle East region and 41% said they would try shopping from a wider range of websites.

GoNabit says that this optimism and increased confidence in shopping online is a positive sign for merchants, as is the purchasing power of those polled: 44% have a monthly income of $5,000 or more.

The survey was conducted by independent research firm YouGovSiraj between 24th and 31st July 2011, using the GoNabit UAE customer database. Total sample size was 2,470 respondents, 50% male 50% female 65% under 35, Asian 52%, Arab 18% and Westerners 24%.

#image credit.

Lisa Kawar a Jordanian mom was looking for a certain product and had to visit so many stores and waste a lot of time, checking around where to find it. that’s when she thought “why dont we have a website, on which we can search for products in the different stores in town” and Menwayn was born.

Menwayn launched about a week ago in beta mood covering only Jordan for the time being, is a comparison shopping site for a wide range of products the are available on brick and mortar stores such electrical appliances, office equipment, furniture and products for the whole family including babies, kids and teens, meaning the site does not offer its own bought products or manages inventory and fulfillment.

The site offers consumers to list products according to the option the they chose such as brand, technology, dimensions, price range or seller name. Products can also be listed to all the sellers who have this product their location, full contact details, their listed prices, and even special offers when available. However what is lacking is a feature that can list a single product availability in all stores and the price list of each store for that product.

Menwayn offers offline stores a free admin panels to add and update their products list with information such as description, availability, price, contact details and special offers. Lisa has told us the site secured 25 stores in Jordan from big local brands such as ike hikmat yassin, hani darwish khalili, tahboub, zaki ghul, smart buy, and issa murad.

Lisa told us she plans to add more Arab countries soon and plans to enable users to buy products online. The site is available in Arabic and English and is incubated in Jordan’s accelerator Oasis 500.

MarkaVIP, a home grown private sales website, today announced its expansion across the region.

The flash sales model, already well established in the U.S. and Europe, works on the forces of time urgency and scarcity. MarkaVIP sources excess or introductory inventory from premium brands worldwide to be sold to its private members within a limited period of time. In return, the customer gets much lower prices than they would normally be offered and opportunities to purchase products they may not otherwise have.

The site was launched in Jordan and Saudi Arabia in November 2010. Eight months later, the company is reporting that its rapidly approaching half a million members and attracts between 2,000 and 4,000 new members daily.

Membership to MarkaVIP is by invitation only. Customers must be invited, referred or approved to join the site, presenting suppliers with an exclusive and discerning online audience. Once accepted, MarkaVIP members gain access to deep discounts of between 40 to 70 percent on men and women’s apparel, accessories, children’s items, electronics and home decor.

They also have the opportunity to access new-to-region brands that use the site to run introductory launch campaigns as a means of market testing.

Having recently raised USD3 million in funding from U.S, European and Arab investors, MarkaVIP is expanding to the rest of the GCC countries and Lebanon. It reported that it now enjoys seven-figure monthly revenues and is on track to become the fastest growing Middle East e-commerce brand. It already is one of the fastest growing Middle East brand on Facebook with close to 140,000 fans.

According to Founder and CEO Ahmed Alkhatib, the key to MarkaVIP’s success has been market localisation. Despite the nascent state of e-commerce in the Middle East, he says the untapped potential of the region far outweighs the current barriers to entry.

“There are around 385 million people living in the Middle East and North Africa and 135 million of them are online currently. Internet penetration is expected to grow very quickly over the next few years, so we see a significant opportunity to provide the market with a convenient and secure online shopping platform that also delivers great value,” he said.

Alkhatib, a Jordanian American with over 10 years’ experience in Silicon Valley, has worked on some the world’s most recognized e-commerce brands during their start-up years, including eBay and Amazon. He also built the infrastructure for the largest U.S. customised apparel and products website Zazzle.com.

MarkaVIP has circumvented the challenges of low credit card penetration and cross border order fulfilment by setting up logistics hubs in every market where it operates. In addition to overcoming current infrastructure limitations, this hyper-local model enables MarkaVIP to develop offline relationships with its members and suppliers – a move which is not only generating strong repeat business, but is also helping to drive online purchases.

“Our results to date show us there is a real appetite for an online shopping model that works for this region. For us that means localising the flash sales model and e-commerce lifecycle so that we don’t compromise our convenience promise to our members. From the sourcing of our products, to how we market them online, our customer-focused user experience, and having product fulfilment centres in each of our locations – it is all designed to give our members access to great brands at great prices with the best possible delivery times and with no hidden charges or custom duties,” added Alkhatib.
MarkaVIP also plans further regional expansion later in the year. It competes with Jabbar’s flash sales site Sukar, where Alkhatib was CTO.

Today Gate2Play, an end-to-end payment and value-added services platform based in Amman, Jordan, announced a first-time partnership with social games developer Zynga to distribute Zynga Game Cards in 16 countries throughout the Middle East and Africa. As a result of the partnership, Zynga Game Cards will be available for purchase soon in thousands of outlets as both physical pre-paid cards as well as virtual e-PINs.

Zynga Game Cards provide an easy way for players to pay for virtual goods within most of their Zynga games including Empires & Allies, CityVille, FarmVille, and Mafia Wars. Available in values of US$2, US$5 and US$10, these smaller currency amounts will give players more choices for the amount they want to spend on virtual goods within the game.

The partnership represents a way to introduce Zynga Game Cards into a region that is embracing social games while validating Gate2Play’s strong position within the MENA region as a premier payment aggregator.
Muhannad Ebwini, Chief Executive of Gate2Play, states that very few online users in the MENA region use credit cards, with the majority preferring alternate payment methods such as pre-paid cards, bank transfers, and SMS / Mobile payment –especially if they are available in small currency values.

“The pace at which the Middle East’s social gaming market is growing represents a significant opportunity for both Gate2Play and Zynga,” Ebwini said.

Zynga Game Cards will be available for purchase soon in nationwide convenience stores as well as region-specific retail outlets and telco operators. Through the partnership, Gate2Play will be making Zynga Game Cards available for the first time in 16 countries within the region including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen.

Zynga is the world’s leading social games developer with more than 230 million players playing its games each month. Its newest game Empires & Allies, was launched in 12 languages and is the company’s first combat strategy game.

Daily deals, group buying web site Cobone.com has raised an undisclosed amount of second-round funding from Jabbar Internet Group. Jabbar, who are backed by Tiger Global, now take complete ownership of the company by buying out the minority shareholder, Group Buying Global (GBG), which is run by Klaus Hommels, a European Angel Investor.

Launched in August 2010, Cobone.com is one of the fastest growing group buying websites in the region, it competes with GoNabit which was acquired by LivingSocial and other local group buying sites in the region.

Cobone says in a press release that it has grown its registered user base from 1,000 to 600,000, to whom more than 240,000 coupons were sold and $13 million in savings. Cobone.com already has 75 employees operational in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Jabbar Group was created by the founders of Maktoob after Yahoo Maktoob’s acquisition were some companies that were Maktoob umbrella split to become part of Jabbar. Sites under Jabbar include souq.com, sukar.com, joob, cashu and advertising network ikoo.

E-commerce in the region is reaching the tipping point, as the market seems more mature to deal with this type of commerce, yesterday LivingSocial one of the leading group buying sites in the world acquired GoNabit.

Earlier this month, Ideavelopers closed a deal with Sherif Nassar, Founder and CEO of nefsak.com, where Ideavelopers will invest 10 million EGP (1.67639 million U.S. dollars) in his company. Founded in 2008.

Nefask says it has been the fastest growing Egyptian online retailer with sales increasing five times year over year. Today nefsak’s online catalogue has over 18,000 products covering a wide range of categories from computers and electronics to home decoration and fashion. The investment according to a press release will help nefsak develop into a household brand and scale its operations to meet growth expectations.

In his comment on the investment, Ideavelopers Managing Partner, Tarek Assaad said, “We are delighted to work with nefsak, we believe they are the leader in their market. The level of dedication and passion that Sherif Nassar demonstrated while building this company is impressive. These characteristics are essential in an entrepreneur whose aspiration is to build an amazon.com for the Middle East”.

This investment comes as Ideavelopers’ third investment in an e-commerce related company. In mid 2008, Ideavelopers had invested in SMART Cards Applications, a company that runs an electronic network for distributing food rations. Later that year, it also invested in Fawry, the leading provider of payments services. “We believe that e-commerce is reaching an infliction point,” said Ziad Mokhtar, Partner at Ideavelopers, “the people who were 10 years old when the Internet first came to Egypt in the late 90s are now entering the workforce. Adding the increased proliferation of broadband, this translates into a critical mass of users who feel safe, spend more time, and can spend more money online.”

Sherif Nassar started attracting the attention of local and international investors in late 2010. “I chose Ideavelopers”, Sherif says, “because I knew they can help support the company as it grows. They can provide necessary funds, sound strategic advice, and access to local networks”. Both, Tarek Assaad and Ziad Mokhtar from Ideavelopers, as well as Mr. Sameh Farid have joined the board of directors of nefsak.

Ideavelopers is Egyptian based venture capital firm a subsidiary of EFG-Hermes Private Equity. The firm manages the Technology Development Fund – a $50 million fund focused on early stage technology companies. To date, the firm invested over $25 million in 17 companies operating inside and outside Egypt.

Updated: below the post.

Dan Stuart CEO & founder of GoNabit confirmed that LivingSocial has acquired GoNabit. He told ArabCrunch that LivingSocial does not want to disclose terms of the deal.

He said “we have high plans and high expectation and we will expand to new markets” GoNabit is now a LivingSocial company “and likely down the road we will take their brand as they have awesome technology.” But he did not specify when.

Update: GoNabit sent us the acquisition  announcement press release here it is:

LivingSocial-GONABIT DEAL MARKS First E-COMMERCE ACQUISITION FOR MIDDLE EAST

Regional market set to mature with entry of world-leading local commerce brand

Dubai, UAE, 28 June 2011 – The acquisition of GoNabit.com, the Middle East’s original group-buying website, by LivingSocial, the online source for handpicked experiences at a great value, marks a milestone development for the region’s e-commerce industry. The deal is the first large-scale acquisition of an e-commerce company in the Middle East and signals further market maturity as one of the world’s leading local commerce brands enters the region. Under the new agreement, GoNabit will become a LivingSocial company.

Approached by several international group-buying players, GoNabit chose to partner with LivingSocial because of a clear alignment with the company’s vision and values. With a shared mission to create exciting and affordable experiences for members and valuable new marketing opportunities for merchant partners, GoNabit says the acquisition enables them to better serve their stakeholders and continue to pioneer e-commerce in the Middle East.

“GoNabit’s acquisition by LivingSocial is a milestone in the development of e-commerce in the Middle East. E-commerce is in its infancy in this region and the entry of prominent global player LivingSocial signals the next phase of the industry’s development here,” said Dan Stuart, CEO and Co-founder, GoNabit.com.

“Our acquisition by LivingSocial has really strengthened our ability and resolve to continue being the best group-buying website in the region. Both Dan Stuart and I will remain in our respective roles for the foreseeable future and all GoNabit staff have been retained,” added Sohrab Jahanbani, Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder, GoNabit.com.

“As with previous acquisitions, LivingSocial has again chosen to align with a local company that possesses similar values and ways of doing business. We are excited to enter the dynamic Middle East market and further strengthen our strategic global efforts to bring LivingSocial values to members across the globe,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder, LivingSocial.

GoNabit was co-founded by Dan Stuart and Sohrab Jahanbani in January 2010, with investment and support from Bayt.com, the Middle East’s leading job site.

Speaking about the acquisition, Akram Assaf, Chief Technology Officer of Bayt.com said, “I extend my congratulations to the truly dedicated GoNabit team for their success story. We at Bayt.com are proud to have been a part of a business that allows people to live their lifestyle of choice and we are eager to be involved in more innovative ventures in the future.”

Headquartered in Dubai, with local offices in all its markets – Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Amman and Cairo – the company has recently announced popular new deal verticals catering to specific interests. Dubai Family, dedicated to providing fun deals suitable for children and parents alike, and the pan-city GoNabit Getaways website which offers exciting holiday deals and travel packages are both enjoying a growing popularity. In addition to being the first group-buying website in the Middle East, GoNabit is the first company of its kind to offer deals in Arabic. Members in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Dubai, Beirut, Cairo and Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Ajman have saved more than $5 million USD in the past year.

LivingSocial also announced its launch in The Netherlands; the acquisition of Ensogo, a leading daily deal website in the Philippines and Thailand; and DealKeren, an Ensogo company based in Indonesia. Along with the GoNabit deal, these two new acquisitions and the Netherlands launch bring the total number of countries in which LivingSocial operates to 21. The company’s reach now spans six of the seven continents.

Terms of the deals were not released.

Shoppers can continue to save and discover on www.gonabit.com.

About LivingSocial

LivingSocial adds surprise to every calendar with handpicked daily deals you can share with friends. Members enjoy at least 50% off on the coolest, local experiences. Local business owners get an easy and cost effective marketing tool to attract new, loyal customers. In 2010, one of the fastest growing companies in the space expanded with LivingSocial Escapes offering easy weekend trips at great value. In April, LivingSocial has unveiled Instant Deals – real-time, mobile offerings delivered via members smart phones featuring deals within .5 miles of their location. Based in Washington, DC, the international brand and has saved nearly 30 million subscribers more than half a billion dollars in 21 countries on 6 continents.

About GoNabit

GoNabit is an online marketing company that uses the power of social commerce to nab unbeatable discounts of between 50-90 per cent on things to see, eat and do in the cities in which it operates. It was the first group buying website to launch in the Middle East and offers businesses a risk-free customer-creation engine. GoNabit was founded in 2010 by experienced entrepreneurs Dan Stuart and Sohrab Jahanbani and is majority-owned and supported by Bayt.com, the number one job site in the Middle East. GoNabit has the highest level of Verisign’s SSL encryption and is also the first company in the UAE to have its database management verified by TRUSTe.

Each day subscribers to GoNabit get the opportunity to purchase an unbeatable deal on something cool to do in their city. To successfully “nab” the deal, it must first tip – the point at which a minimum agreed number of purchasers opts into buying the deal.  Once the tipping point is achieved and the deal goes live, any GoNabit subscriber can purchase it. The deal is available for 24 to 48 hours, or 72 hours for weekend deals.

For more information visit: www.gonabit.com

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Update: the deal is confirmed.

Looks like group buying giant has acquired UAE daily deals startup startup GoNabit that has presence in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Lebanon, Jordan and Kuwait. and indonesian startup DealKeren.

The news comes from Indonesian tech startup blog Daily Social. according to the blog the logo on DealKeren’s website today has changed, officially confirming that the daily deal site has been acquired by Groupon US competitor Living Social, and that the blog sources has told them that Living Social Bought GoNabit.

I called Dan Dan Stuart CEO & founder of GoNabit and he declined to comment in the story.
GoNabit was launched last year and is backed by #1 job site in the Middle East Bayt. Here is an interview with Dan we did back in July 2010.

We will keep you posted with updates and confirmation from GoNabit, however it is worth mentioning that I’ve been seeing Facebook ads for LivingSocial in Facebook for a to be launched site for Deals in Amman. Groupon the main competitor to Living Social has presence in the Arab Region in Duabi, Abu Dhabi and Sharejah in UAE.

We wrote before and e-commerce in Jordan and compared a number of sites, the winner who got investors confidence is Wheels Express. a  shopping and delivery site that expanded from just delivering DVDs into a number of other items including laundry.

Today at a press conference in Amman, Jordan, Oasis500 announced that Wheels Express has revived investment from businessman Emad Malhas and Kawar Group. The amount of investment was not disclosed. The startups is part of Oasis500 accelerator program and has received its initial USD 15,000 investment. according to a press release from Oasis500.

Wheels Express has demoed with MarakaVIP which received 3 million USD investment at Oasis500 angel network demo day recently.

In a press conference today in Amman, Jordan ,Oasis500 a startup accelerator announced the first two investments resulting from its first Oasis500 Angel network event. Where tow Jordanian startups MarkaVIP and Wheels Express, have received funding “investment”.

MarkaVIP a flash shopping website targeting the Arab region and compete with Jabbar’s Sukar has raised JD 2 million (USD 3 million) from Kawar Group and Hummingbird Ventures. MarkaVIP offer its members in the Middle East access to exclusive international brands at up to an 85% discount.

Ahmed Alkhatib founder and CEO of MarkaVIP told ArabCrunch  that the company will use the funding to expand their offering to new markets in the Arab region, including north Africa and in hiring more people.

Oasis500 has recently hosted a regional Angel Network Event, where a number of Jordanian startups demoed in-front of 70 investors from Jordan, the region and Silicon Valley in the USA. MarkaVIP and Wheels express where among them. The King of Jordan Abdula Bin Al Husain who is supportive to the advancement of the tech sector in Jordan has attended the event.

I called Oasis500 today, and they have not told me or invited me to the press conference!

achtART is an E-Commerce site for Arts and Crafts says it aims at helping regional and Lebanese artists and crafts-people showcase their artistic creations through an online platform and offer those creations for sale.

The site showcase artists products according to the category they belong to: paintings, home/ office accessories, design jewelry, wooden structures, not for profit, furnitures and fashion accessories.

Like any other e-commerce site achtART allows you to view items with their price add them to shopping cart and buy them at checkout. The website also features some of its artists.

The site has a nice concept but since it is about art, I think it should improve its design and UI.

Jabbar’s group buying site Cobone has expanded to Cairo, Now offering special offers to the resident of the city.

Like Groupon and Livingsocial Cobone works by offering special deal with deep discounts on restaurants health club and so on, users commit to the deal and if enough people buy the deal it goes live.

With this move Cobone competes Cairo specific group buying site: offerna. It also competes with other regional group buying sites: GoNanbit , Groupon, Fustuq, and Hmizate.

Jabbar’s CashU Competitor OneCard, one of N2V’s subsidiaries has announced that OneCard users can now buy Facebook Credit directly using their OneCard balance.

OneCard is a prepaid card located at more than 75000 point of stores across 20 countries, its users can top up their OneCard accounts using many local payments like Knet in Kuwait and UAEexchange in UAE.

Facebook Credits can be used to buy games gifts and points and to pay for advertising campaigns..

END

Between 2009 and 2010 Twitter users from the Arab world were estimated to be around 15,000 to 40,000 but these figures were not official and not very accurate. But after the revolution on Tunisia and Egypt, as Twitter has been used as a tool to fuel the revolution,Twitter become a house hold name in the Arab world just like Facebook. An infographic about Digital Marketing Trends in the Middle East from socialbakers and IQPC estimated the number of Twitter users in the Arab region to be around 5.5 Million users, that is 136.5 % growth rate! The infographic goes to reveal that 40% of them are from UAE.
Other interesting figures from the report is that there is 15 million Facebook users, that number however might not be accurate as in Q1 2010 our sources inside Facebook estimated the number around 16-18 million users.
The complete inforgraghic is below, we have another two reservations, e-marketing budgets from the Arab world does not include banners ads spending as it focus on email marketing, smart phone apps, SMS marketing, social media marketing and google adwords. Another one it does not mention the source of the numbers for Twitter users!
Ari Kesisoglu – Regional Manager, Middle East North Africa said that online ad spending in the MENA region is between 110 to 130 Million, thus the report should include banner ad spending to offer a complete picture. USD annually.

Here us the infographics:

The group buying startups spree are everywhere now a days in the Arab world, we have Cobone based in UAE from Jabbar group now operates in Amman, Jordan, Dubai, Sharija and Abu Dhabi in UAE, Beirut in Lebanon, cobone plans to expand to Cairo and other cities in GCC region. GoNanbit funded by Bayt and based also in UAE also operates in the cities that cobone operates in plus Kuwait city , we have offerna from Egypt which is covers Cairo and we have Groupon opening a branch in Dubai, UAE and operates in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The new addition to group buying startups is Hmizate from Morocco who is targeting the Moroccan market with deals and discounts from many shops in Casablanca.

Like the others, Hmizate offers deals every several days with deep discounts to shops and restaurants that you can earn if enough people joined the deal. Say 10 people must commit to buying the deal in order for it to happen and you get charged only when the deal is complete.

The startup founder Kamal Reggad told us that his startup Hmizate has 100 000 subscriber and has raised funding from Himvest Holding a private company in morocco that operates in different sectors; advertising, real estate, energy… which recently started a fund for tech startups.

We do not know how much did Mmizate raised, however we sent an email to Kamal and we will update you here once he answers.

Update: Kamal declined to tell us how much they were funded.

Jordan based number one regional shipping company Aramex has been in forefront in harassing technology to grow its business. Today the announcement came that the delivery company has launched an API that enables e-commerce sites to integrate shipping tracking to ordered goods, thus enabling users to know where their ordered good is located now.

Aramax shipping and tracking API works 2 ways, websites submit shipping request via XML format or HTTP thus Aramex can get the info that an ordered has been made. Technical details about both approaches on Aramex site seems currently down. However if you run an e-commerce site and Aramex is your shipping partner keep an eye in this post for updates.